Artist Ian Ruhter looks to the 50s for inspiration -- the 1850s

This article was taken from the September 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="Apple-style-span">subscribing online.

Forget Instagram's faux-retro stylings: Ian Ruhter uses wet-plate photography -- a technique that had its heyday in the 19th century -- and a van-sized camera to create his images. "I wanted to go back to shooting film, but a lot of the film has gone now," says the 38-year-old extreme-sports photographer and former pro-snowboarder. "So I had to go further back and create my own film."

Two years ago, LA-based Ruhter started experimenting with the collodion wet-plate process, a technique that uses bromide, iodide or chloride dissolved in collodion and spread over a glass plate. The plate is dunked in a silver-nitrate solution and exposed in a camera while wet, then developed in a portable darkroom before it dries. The plates need to be coated, sensitised, exposed and developed within 15 minutes, which he says is "extremely hard to do".

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Ruhter became dissatisfied with the standard 8" x 8" images he was producing -- he wanted to go a lot bigger, but without going digital. "So I decided to build a bigger camera," he explains. "We needed a truck and a darkroom. In designing it, the only way I could make it work was where I became part of the camera; it is so large we get inside it." Ruhter and his two assistants pour the film on to the plate, which can be up to 1.5 metres wide, put the plate into the holder and adjust the focus from inside the camera. He then opens the shutter from within, holds it open for anywhere between five seconds to a couple of minutes, then closes it and develops the photo.

The process is expensive -- each plate costs $500 (£320) -- and painstaking: one photo (above-left) took six hours. Ruhter wants to take his van on the road to tour the US taking photographs, but is looking for funding. "We're going to start closer to where we live and take it from there." If you see his van, don't beep -- he may be some time.

This article was first published in the September 2012 issue of WIRED magazine